Byron overcomes slow start in Charlotte, surging ahead to second place finish
The NASCAR Cup Series rolled into the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in Concord, North Carolina Oct. 7-8, the site of the Bank of America ROVAL 400 and the final race of the Round of 12.
William Byron, driver of the No. 24 HP Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, entered race weekend having already advanced to the Round of Eight after winning at Texas two weeks prior. To date, Byron has six wins, 18 top 10 finishes, 13 top five finishes and has failed to finish only three races all season.
The Texas win, while securing Byron a spot in the next round of the playoffs, was also the 300th win for Hendrick Motorsports as an organization.
“It was awesome,” Byron said. “I didn’t really know the meaning of it until I got back to the shop and saw how much it meant to everybody. That was really cool and a special memory that I won’t forget.”
Hendrick Motorsports is the only organization in NASCAR history to reach the 300-win mark.
The race weekend began on Saturday, with practice followed by the qualifying round. Byron struggled throughout practice, with his fastest lap being recorded at 1:22.894, which placed him in 29th when the practice round came to a close. Byron then stepped up in qualifying, posting a 1:21.608, placing him in 14th to start the race.
Sunday brought the Bank of America ROVAL 400, consisting of 109 laps around the 2.32 mile road course. The ROVAL was introduced in 2018 and combines most of the normal Charlotte Motor Speedway oval with tight, fast turns sweeping through the infield and a couple of chicanes on the front and backstretch.
After rolling off 14th, Byron struggled throughout the early stages of the race to gain track position. He consistently ran between the 12 and 15 positions, and was even able to work his way up to 8th at one point. Byron ended up finishing the first stage in 14th, and the second stage in 13th.
However, the race turned around for the No. 24 team at the start of the third stage. Pit strategy combined with Byron’s driving was able to help him jump up to the top five, where he restarted at the beginning of stage three.
Throughout the final stage, Byron battled and held on to his track position. Several late race spins and crashes brought the yellow flag out multiple times in the third stage, causing the field to bunch up more, giving Byron multiple opportunities to take the lead. On the final restart of the race, Kyle Busch had a bad restart, which allowed Byron to grab second place with the laps winding down.
Byron fought to catch up to race leader AJ Allmendinger, and at one point was within a car length of the No. 16 car. However, Byron came up just short, finishing second after fighting his way up from 14th.
Looking ahead to Las Vegas, Byron says he and the team are taking things one step at a time.
“That’s been our motto all year long,” Byron said. “Just one race at a time.”
Moving on to the Round of Eight along with Byron will be Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr.
Gibson is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion